


Perfect Day

by timelordvictorious1



Series: Greenwood Royal Family Chronicles [5]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (Movies), The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: BAMF Thranduil, Caring Thranduil, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Good Parent Thranduil, Happy Ending, Parent Thranduil, Parent-Child Relationship, Thranduil Not Being An Asshole, good parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:01:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23852722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timelordvictorious1/pseuds/timelordvictorious1
Summary: Legolas takes advantage of Thranduil’s good mood and has a perfect day.
Relationships: Legolas Greenleaf & Thranduil
Series: Greenwood Royal Family Chronicles [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1676581
Comments: 3
Kudos: 81





	1. Chapter 1

Legolas immediately noticed something was different at breakfast. For a while, he couldn’t quite put his finger on it, until he came to a realization. It was that his father was in a good mood. It wasn’t that Thranduil was always in a bad mood; it was mainly that by the time breakfast came around, something had already happened to annoy him or irk him in some way. Legolas didn’t know what could have done it. Maybe it was because no one had annoyed him yet, maybe because it was a beautiful spring morning, maybe it was simply because he had woken up on the right side of the bed; Legolas didn’t really care why. All he knew was that these kinds of opportunities were rare, especially with his father. So, Legolas did what anyone in that situation would do: he shamelessly took advantage of it.

“Ada? Can I skip my lessons today and spend some time in the forest?”

“I don’t see why not,  _ penneth _ . Why don’t you gather some of the other elflings and make a day of it?” he replied pleasantly.

“ _ Hannon-le _ , ada!” he yelled as he jumped out of his seat and gave his ada a kiss. He hadn’t expected it to be that easy! His father hadn’t even insisted that he take a guard. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity. 

Legolas only found one friend willing to go, but that was more than enough. They spent the entire day climbing trees, racing each other, and playing hide and seek. It was during a game of hide and seek, late in the afternoon, that they found it.

Legolas was looking for a hiding place from Calarië, when he stumbled upon a small cave. At first glance, it seemed like the perfect spot; Calarië would never find him in there. He settled himself comfortably on the cave floor, giggling to himself quietly. He was certain that it would be hours before she found him. Suddenly, a noise from within caught his attention. It sounded like an animal, but it didn’t sound aggressive; it sounded more like it was crying. He went further into the cave and discovered a bear cub. It was small, perhaps only a couple of months old. 

He took the cub in his arms and took it out of the cave. It was black and oh-so-soft, the softest fur he’d ever felt. The cub stopped its crying as soon as Legolas picked it up, like it wanted to be held.

“Calarië! I’m over here!”

Calarië began running to him and was stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Legolas and his new friend.

“It’s so cute!” she yelled when she was finally able to gather her wits.

Legolas had to admit that Calarië was right for once: it was really cute.

“I don’t see its nana. Should we keep it?” he asked Calarië leadingly.

“Do you think your ada will let you keep it?”

It wasn’t the first time Legolas had found a pet in the woods. First, he had brought home a squirrel that Thranduil had reluctantly agreed to let him keep. They struck a bargain that it could stay as long as Legolas didn’t let it run wild. It went well until Legolas accidentally released it into one of his father’s council meetings. Thranduil had been livid that day, and only at Galion’s intervention was Legolas allowed to keep his pet. Next, he brought home a fox. It took him a full week to convince Thranduil to let him keep it after the squirrel fiasco. Legolas loved that fox and the fox loved Legolas. It followed him around everywhere, but it had died of old age over ten years ago. He was heartbroken when it died and decided that he never ever wanted another pet again. But now, looking at the cub, he couldn’t bring himself to leave it all alone to fend for itself. 

“He was in a good mood this morning. He’ll be against it, but I think I can convince him! We just need to hide it until he agrees!”

  
  
  


Legolas and Calarië started walking back to the palace as the cub followed closely behind. Getting the cub inside would be tricky, but he was sure they could find a way.

He decided that their best bet would be his balcony. If they could find a way to get it up his balcony, they would be able to avoid all prying eyes.

“I know how we’re going to do it,” he started. “You are going to stay with him while I find a rope and a bucket. Once I do that, you’ll stand under my balcony and I’ll pull him up.”

“That’s a great idea!” responded Calarië.

When they arrived at the palace, Legolas tried to find the supplies he needed. Unfortunately, the bear wouldn’t let him leave. It followed his every step and began wailing when Calarië tried to hold it back. Since the original plan wasn’t going to work, they switched roles; Legolas would stay with the bear and Calarië would get the supplies.

It took her what seemed like forever to get the supplies and meet Legolas at the balcony. Part of him worried that she had been caught and forced to confess. He was relieved when he finally saw her peek her head over the balcony. She lowered the bucket down to Legolas and waited for him to give the signal. As soon as Legolas placed the bear into the bucket, it started crying and squirming. He was afraid that all the movement would cause Calarië to drop the rope in midair. He didn’t know what else to do, but also knew that the longer they took, the more likely it would be for them to get caught. He decided to take matters into his own hands and climb up the balcony—while carrying the cub—all on his own. Normally, it was an easy climb; but having to do it with one hand and with a panicking bear cub in the other, made it quite difficult. Luckily for him, the bear was not very heavy. Still, he almost lost his grip twice.

Calarië took the bear from his hand as soon as it was within her reach. Legolas breathed a sigh of relief when he finally made it onto the balcony; for a moment, he’d thought he might not make it to the top.

Once inside, it occurred to Legolas that the bear might be hungry. He tried to go to the kitchens, but the bear started wailing again. Calarië would have to go instead. She ran into the room about fifteen minutes later, panicked.

“Legolas! Galion is coming. He said he’d bring the food. I didn’t know what else to do!”

Legolas scrambled. He picked up the cub, took him to his bathing chamber, and set him in the empty tub. When he walked back out, Galion was already in the room.

“I didn’t know you were back yet,  _ penneth _ . I brought you the food you asked for.”

“Thank you, Galion,” Legolas responded sweetly.

“Is there anything else you needed?”

“No, thank you. We’re ok. We’re just going to eat and read books.”

Red flags immediately went up for Galion. Legolas was up to something. Galion had known Legolas since the day the elfling was born, and he had never known Legolas to stay inside reading when he had the option of being outside. Nothing looked amiss to Galion; he would just have to wait and catch Legolas in the act.

“Then I’ll just take your soiled clothes to get laundered,” he said as he started walking to the bathing chamber.

“There’s no need!” yelled Legolas frantically.

“Legolas, I have no idea what you’re hiding in there, but you can be sure that your father won’t like it. I suggest that you take care of it before he finds out.” Had it been anyone else, Galion would have investigated what they were hiding and then gone straight to Thranduil. Fortunately for Legolas, Galion had a soft spot for him; one that Legolas was sure to exploit whenever he had the chance.

Galion left Legolas and Calarië to eat by themselves.

As soon as they were sure that Galion was truly gone, they brought the cub out and laid the food on the floor for it.

While it ate, Legolas decided on a name for the bear.

“I’m going to name him Harwon. It means ‘treasure’.”

“I think that’s a great name,” said Calarië thoughtfully.

Legolas thought Harwon might have been starving before because he ate every single morsel of food that was set out. Harwon yawned soon after and Legolas sang him a lullaby to get him to sleep. 

  
  


Legolas and Calarië were too distracted looking at the sleeping Harwon to realize that Thranduil had walked into the room.


	2. Chapter 2

Legolas and Calarië heard a loud gasp and looked around to see where it had come from.

It was Thranduil, standing there with his mouth hanging open. Without even thinking, Calarië ran away as fast as her legs could carry her. By the time she realized what had happened, she was already far away from Thranduil’s wrath. 

Thranduil couldn’t accept what his eyes were seeing. His eyes were seeing a bear cub sleeping in his son’s room, but it simply wasn’t possible that Legolas had brought an actual bear home this time. He blinked several times, but the bear cub was not disappearing. He had no other choice but to finally accept that Legolas had indeed snuck a bear into his room.

“Legolas! What are you doing with that?” he asked as he pointed to Harwon.

“Ada! He’s my new pet! His name is Harwon and he’s my friend and I love him!”

“What made you think I’d let you keep a bear?!”

“Ada! He was all alone and he doesn’t have a nana and he was crying because he was lonely! Please, ada! I don’t want him to be alone!”

Thranduil rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Legolas, its nana is probably searching for it as we speak. You can’t just take this cub from its mother.”

“But ada! He didn’t have a mother! He was all alone and starving! He would have died out there on his own!” yelled Legolas frantically. 

“Did you search for her? Maybe she was out gathering food!”

Legolas stayed silent. It hadn’t occurred to him that the mother bear might have just stepped out of the cave for a moment, only to return and find her cub missing.

Thranduil sighed. He could see Legolas’ heart breaking at the thought of having to return the bear. He didn’t like being strict with Legolas and having to say “no”. He wanted his son to be happy above all else, but if he were to give Legolas free rein, there’d be more animals inside the palace than there were in the forest. 

“Why don’t we make a deal?” said he said as he kneeled down to look the elfling in the eyes. “Legolas, please understand that you can’t keep this bear from his mother. If he has a mother, you have to give him back. Imagine if someone took you from me just because they wanted to keep you as a pet? Do you understand?”

Legolas took time to consider his ada’s words and reluctantly nodded his head in agreement.

“If we don’t find the mother, then we can keep Harwon in the stables.” he continued.

“Fine, ada.” Legolas wasn’t completely on board with having Harwon live in the stables, but that was a fight for another day.

Thranduil embraced Legolas with all his might. He really really hoped that Legolas wouldn’t be too disappointed when they found the mother. 

Galion walked in to find them hugging and what appeared to be a bear cub sleeping on the floor. He thought that that had to be whatever Legolas had been hiding in his bathing chamber. He was glad that the discovery hadn’t led to an argument between the two. He knew they both had an obstinate streak that could prove explosive given the right circumstances. 

Legolas told Galion how he’d found Harwon and explained the deal he and his ada had made. Galion knew that he had to join Legolas and Thranduil on their journey to return Harwon to his home to ensure they both kept up their end of the agreement.

It was nearly dark when they left the palace. Legolas pretended for a while to not remember where the cave was, in order to give his father time to warm up to the cub. He even made Thranduil carry Harwon, pretending he was too heavy for him to safely carry. Thranduil was not easily fooled; he knew that it was all a ploy to get him to like the bear and that Legolas was perfectly capable of carrying Harwon himself. The worst part was that Legolas’ plan seemed to be working. Thranduil needed to put a stop to it, before he too fell in love with the bear. After an hour of walking in circles, Thranduil put his foot down. “I know what you’re doing,  _ tithen las _ . It’s not going to work. Take us to his cave right now.”

Legolas started to argue, but was reminded him that he had struck a bargain and he needed to keep his word. Legolas groaned, but began leading them to the cave. They arrived there less than five minutes later.

Much to Legolas’ relief, the cave was empty. A wave of relief and joy swept over him as he thought that he’d won.

“Not so fast, Legolas. We need to search for her before you can take him,” said Thranduil.

While Thranduil and Galion did the actual searching, Legolas walked around, pretending. Legolas was almost sure he’d won already. They had been looking for over half an hour and there was no sign of her. Ten minutes later, disaster struck.

“Over here!” yelled Thranduil.

Legolas picked up Harwon and ran to the spot where he’d heard his father’s voice. It took him a while to find his father and Galion, but he eventually found them standing over a huge bear. The bear appeared to be dead. He left Harwon behind a tree several steps away; he didn’t want Harwon to see his dead mother.

“Is she dead, ada?”

“She’s not, but something attacked her.”

Legolas approached carefully, bracing himself for the worst. She looked half dead and had claw and bite marks all over. 

“Galion! Take Legolas back home! Leave him there and come back with a healer and a dozen soldiers! Now!”

Galion was stunned by the turn of events. He didn’t know what was going on, but if Thranduil wanted him to take Legolas away, it was because something bad was about to happen. He picked up Legolas and began running back to the palace as fast as his legs could carry him.

Legolas didn’t even have time to protest because it had all happened so fast. The last sight he caught of his ada was him standing protectively over the grown bear and unsheathing his sword. 


	3. Chapter 3

Galion obeyed his orders and returned Legolas to the palace. He made sure that Legolas was securely in his room before he gathered the soldiers and healer that Thranduil had requested. It was decided that saddling horses would take too long and whatever the danger was, it was imminent. They left the moment they were ready. Now that Galion knew where Harwon had come from, it didn’t take him long for him to lead the way there. They arrived just in time to witness Thranduil dispatching the last of what had been a horde of wild wargs. 

Neither Galion nor any of the soldiers had noticed that Legolas was following closely behind. He didn’t like staying behind and he certainly didn’t like the idea of abandoning Harwon and his mother. His only choice was to follow in secret. It wasn’t hard; he knew where they were going and he was small enough that he could hide behind almost anything. He couldn’t see anything from where he was; he decided to climb a tree and perched himself on one of the limbs to get a better view. From the top, he was able to see that there were about thirty dead wargs lying all around the forest floor. Legolas had never seen a warg before, let alone thirty.

“What took you so long?” Legolas heard his father ask the group of stunned soldiers. The soldiers began to stammer before Thranduil shushed them. Legolas put his head down as his father’s eyes began searching the treeline. There was complete silence until he heard, “Come out, Legolas!”

Legolas didn’t move. There was no way his father had seen him; he was sure that Thranduil was bluffing. Legolas heard one of the soldiers explain that he had stayed back at the palace. Thranduil ignored the soldier and called out for Legolas again. The soldiers all stared at each other. None of them wanted to contradict their king, but it was apparent to them that Legolas was not there. 

“Legolas, I am going to count to three. I expect to see you standing in front of me by then. One! Two! Three!”

Legolas started to climb down after three. He wasn’t sure if his father actually knew he was there or if he was guessing, but whatever the reason, Legolas didn’t want to risk being punished later on. Everyone—except Thranduil—was shocked to see Legolas climbing down the tree. Thranduil knew his elfling; he knew Legolas wouldn’t give up so easily. 

Legolas was expecting to be scolded in front of everyone. He walked to his ada with his head held low, hoping that if he looked repentant enough, Thranduil would go easy on him. Surprisingly enough, he didn’t scold Legolas for disobeying his orders; in fact, he seemed quite content, considering that he’d just slaughtered a whole pack of wargs single-handedly.

“Legolas, go find Harwon. He ran away while I was fighting the wargs. I think he’ll have gone back to the cave where you found him.”

Surely enough, Legolas found Harwon hiding in the cave. He could tell that Harwon was too scared to come out but was finally able to lure him out after several minutes of coaxing. When Legolas returned, he saw the healer tending to Harwon’s mother’s wounds. The healer, named Luthiel, was kind and gentle. She had tended to quite a few of Legolas’ injuries in the past, so he was sure that the mother bear was in the best possible hands. He decided to stay away from them, afraid that Harwon would see the sight and be upset.

Just as Luthiel began applying a healing ointment to the mother bear’s wounds, she clawed at Luthiel. Luthiel just barely managed to get out of the way in time. Legolas was surprised to hear his father volunteer to keep treating the bear’s wounds.

“My King, I don’t think it’s a good idea. She’s half-crazed with pain,” protested Luthiel.

“There is not a single creature native to this forest that would harm me,” he said proudly. Legolas knew that to be true. He didn’t know if it was one of the perks of being King of the Woodland Realm or because of his father’s intimidating nature, but no forest animal—no matter how dangerous—would ever dare harm Thranduil or his son. Thranduil carefully and methodically proceeded to apply the ointment to every single wound. 

“You’re quite good at that, my lord,” said the healer, mildly impressed.

“You forget that my wife was a healer. She taught me everything I know,” he said with a small chuckle. Legolas gasped. His ada never talked about his nana so casually. In Legolas’ fifty years of life, he had only ever heard a handful of stories about her and only ever after begging his ada to tell him something about her. Once Thranduil had finished patching the bear up, Legolas took Harwon to her. Harwon immediately started running to his mother. Legolas was sad that he wouldn’t be able to keep him, but was sort of glad that Harwon didn’t have to grow up without a nana. If anyone knew how hard that was, it was Legolas.

With the excitement over, they all began walking back to the palace. They left Harwon and his mother in the safety of the cave where Legolas had found him. Thranduil noticed how low Legolas’ spirits were; he knew it would happen once they found the mother bear.

“Are you alright,  _ tithen las _ ?” he asked his crestfallen son.

“Yes, ada. I’m happy we found Harwon’s nana,” he replied with a tinge of sadness.

“You know what, Legolas? Erthril and Harwon are going to need food to survive. She’s not going to be well enough to go out and look for food for a while. So I thought that you might want to take on the responsibility of bringing them food everyday.”

“Who is Erthril?”

“That’s what I named the nana bear. It means ‘to unite’. I thought it was appropriate. Do you like it?”

“Yes, ada! I do want to do that! I would love it!” Legolas started jumping up and down. “But what about my lessons, ada?” he asked, unsure if he wanted to hear the answer.

Thranduil pretended to mull it over. He had already decided what his answer was going to be, but wanted to keep Legolas in suspense for a few more seconds.

“Erthril is going to need about two months to recover. You can take a break from your lessons for that time.”

Legolas raised his eyebrows as his eyes went wide. He knew that his father had been in a good mood that morning, but assumed that had gone away since he discovered Harwon in his room. This was unprecedented.

“What if she needs more than two months, ada?” Legolas knew that question was a gamble, but he was willing to risk it.

“Okay then. I’ll give you three months off. She won’t need more than three months,” he replied warningly. 

“Thank you, ada!” He jumped up into his ada’s arms and gave him a big kiss. Legolas was curious as to why his ada was being so lenient with his lessons. If there was one thing that Thranduil stressed, it was that Legolas received the best education possible.

Thranduil, sensing his son’s question, said, “You’re the Prince of the Woodland Realm. And it’s just as important for you to learn to care and have compassion for your citizens, including the animals in this kingdom as it is for you to learn history and maths.”

Galion, who was walking a few steps behind them, smiled. He was impressed that Thranduil and Legolas hadn’t needed him to keep the peace this time. 

It was very hard to get Legolas to bed that night. He told anyone who would listen the story of the bear he’d found, and made sure not to leave out that he was excused from his lessons for three whole months. He even searched out Calarië and told her to make sure she was ready to go out into the forest the next morning. By the time he finally tired himself out, it was well past midnight. 

Thranduil tucked Legolas into his bed and gave him a kiss.

“Can I sleep with you tonight, ada?”

“Of course,  _ ion-nin _ !”

Legolas didn’t need to be told twice; he was out of bed before Thranduil even finished replying.

Apparently, the few minutes that Legolas had already spent in bed were enough to restore his energy because he instantly started jumping on his bed.

“Why are you so excited,  _ penneth _ ?”

“Because today was the perfect day, ada! And I don’t want it to end!”

“What made it so perfect?”

“I didn’t have to go to my lessons and I spent time with my best friend! I made two new bear friends! We were able to save Erthril! Those ugly wargs didn’t hurt you! I have three months off from my lessons! And best of all, I got to spend time with my ada!”

“Even if you didn’t get to keep Harwon?”

“Yes! Because he’s happy with his nana and I still get to see him everyday!”

“You’re right,  _ tithen _ - _ las _ . It was perfect and I don’t want this day to end either! What else do you want to do?”

“I want to go outside and climb a tree!”

“Let’s do that then!” he yelled as he snatched Legolas in mid-jump.

They left the palace hand-in-hand and spent the entire night climbing trees and making friends with various owls and a family of opossums, all of which Legolas wanted to take home.   
Despite the minor hiccup of slaughtering a pack of wargs, Thranduil had to agree with Legolas. It really had been the perfect day, because nothing could be more perfect than seeing his little elfling happy, even if it meant Legolas’ pets running wild in the palace.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Any comments, suggestions, and constructive criticisms are welcome. Please let me know what you think. :)


End file.
